OAKLAND, Calif. _ The Oakland A's welcomed the start of the second half of the season with an 8-7 win over the Toronto Blue Jays fueled by big performances from the middle of the lineup.
Khris Davis had three hits, including a two-run homer, and three RBI. Josh Reddick had two hits, including a homer, walked twice and scored four runs. And Stephen Vogt had three hits and two RBI, including the game-winner scoring Reddick in the seventh.
Oakland's long road back from a four-run deficit midway through the fourth inning culminated in the seventh with Vogt's single to center scoring Reddick _ almost everybody thought so.
Home plate ump Mark Wegner, whose ball-strike calls had led to ejections for A's first baseman Yonder Alonso and manager Bob Melvin in the fourth inning, judged Reddick out at the plate on a feet-first slide.
The A's quickly objected, and after a review of almost three minutes, the A's plea was upheld, and Reddick scored his fourth run of the game as Oakland slipped ahead 8-7.
Ryan Dull picked up the win in relief with Ryan Madson getting three grounders for the save.
Down 7-3 in the fourth, the A's got one run back on a two-out single from Jake Smolinski, then came into some power against Toronto starter Marcus Stroman in the fifth. Reddick singled, Davis crushed a two-run homer, his 20th, and Vogt followed with his eighth homer to tie it. Those were the fourth back-to-back homers for Oakland this season.
To that point, the Blue Jays seemed to have things pretty much their way. After the A's took a 2-0 lead in the first on RBI hit from Davis and a run-scoring grounder from Vogt, Toronto got one unearned run off A's rookie starter Daniel Mengden in the second, scored twice in the third on a Mengden wild pitch and an Edwin Encarnacion sacrifice fly, then struck for four more in the fourth, sending Mengden packing.
After a single and a walk put the inning in play, Mengden was roughed up for two run-scoring hits, an RBI grounder, and another run-producing single before being lifted with the Jays up 7-4.
_ First baseman Alonso and manager Melvin both were ejected from the game in the fourth inning, objecting over umpire mark Wegner's expansive strike zone. Jed Lowrie and Marcus Semien also had strong objections, but neither was ejected.
